Update:

Remember that I said that the next part might depend on if I get stuck or not…

Guess what happened… while in on one hand I have made some progress, even going beyond what I was able to do in previous attempts. I also find myself stuck, making only small steps of progress and hitting walls. This had an effect where I start to write this, make a bit of progress and need to rewrite and so on…

Anyway, this also mean my plans of moving in the story are sort of blocked at least for now. But I can talk about some mechanical, design and technical issues I have with the game.

But it is not all doom and gloom, on the plus side I have able to trade some stuff in the game market (aka the auction house), specially some spare RNPC cards, which give me a lot of Vis (ingame basic currency), that allowed me to buy some costumes, get a difficult to get RNPC way earlier (JD and Cherlyn) and even reach some new parts in the game.

Also, there was an Anniversary Event going was on, and that helped a bit, also by the time I was writing this there is the Christmas event going on.

It is important to say, that this part might feel a bit scatter shot as it mostly list of stuff I am thinking about this whole time and also due constant rewrites.

Conceptual Confusion

Strange as it to say, Granado Espada problems sort stand in part due to its own unique nature, because not only this game came from a moment where a lot of would be staples of MMO design haven’t become standards yet, a so lot of expected things might not be in, but its own design put it in a strange place.

Now, while one can say that all MMOs, sort expect you to play with other people, Granado Espada, feel is giving the strangest signals about it, because with the whole MCC system plus AFK system, you might feel that even more that other MMOs, this is the one which you the feel least the need to play with others and everybody might feel the same. Despite this, there is stuff you should do in groups, so you might often feel unsure in certain moments, is the quest or raid too hard because you are doing solo or because you are under leveled?

This isn’t helped by certain quest and raids meant to be solo, like earlier content, such as Infinito Challenge and the “Individual Quest Raids”, while others meant to be in group, such as some Raids and endgame content.

To see how strange is you only need to go to Coimbra Bridge, there you will find a NPC which handle the Individual Quest Raids, he will be surrounded by so many people to the point it is kind hard to spot him. But if you choose to go slight further ahead you will spot the lonely NPC for Group Raids (note, the raids which he handles are only a small selection).

One thing I need to explain about Raids is that they are often handle by a NPC, from him, you can either create a Room or find one (if the quest allow for groups), but the latter will be often impossible, as there is no one else. You can create a room and wait if people show up, but I never saw that happen.

This confusion is even extended to the Faction system (the game term for a clan), because early one already start in the Pioneer Faction, which default faction for everybody who isn’t in a faction. To the game credit, at least here the UI is helpful, since allow you to research for faction and check details. But you might be temped, like I was for a long time, to remain in that default faction, which isn’t good as an actual active one. Because joining one does help a lot — not only you gain some bonuses plus other benefits.

However, while the UI helps to find Factions, the same could not be said of the Search Squad (the game term for a group) function, which all it does is show some squads but no idea of what they are doing.

This all means that the game is often lead to a strange situation where you never know when you actually should form a group or ask for help or it just you don’t have level enough.

Not only this, but the AFK system is so strange that you might realize, like me, that you spend a lot of time in the game, but not actually playing it… you simply might be playing something else, watching something or maybe not even be looking at the pc…

UI Confusion

Granado Espada UI is very mixed, while functional, sometimes fail you to inform of crucial stuff:

There is an internal database where you can check a lot of stuff, specially quest trees, however while the info there is great the UI fail to say if a quest have prerequisites quest you need to do before. Also, description of quests and raids are often very vague.

This is particular annoying with NRPC, which often have lots of this kind of prerequisites, like to recruit M´Bomba sister Beatrice, you need to recruit him first and to all his sub quest and also reach a certain point of the main quest. But looking at the database you might don’t know that at all, so you can be left a while wondering how to recruit someone.

The game also have some strange hidden mechanics which it never informs you at all and often contradict stuff that happen in the game:

One is the annoying “Montoro Curse”, in the plot there is a whole thing about a curse which plague Lucifer Castle and you even do a quest to lift it up. Expect, that curse not only to be still there, but have this mechanic which lower your stats depending on of the day of the week, and it gets strong as you grow deeper in Lucifer castle, making the place already very hard even more hard.

Another one: One day I was trying to a quest for recruit Veronif, which at the first step require 10 Black Magic Stones, I tried to gather them but the place was too high level for me, however I managed to get at least one stone…

… But when I return to one city for some other business is when I noticed that there was a strange effect of floating skull laughing above my characters, I checked the UI for buffs and debuffs and noticed nothing strange there. Confused I decided to ask in the Faction chat about it, and the people quickly pointed that is because Black magic stone give you a debuff, and you should store them somewhere else quickly as possible…

Another issue is that you need ammo and special crystals for some weapons and magic, and you can easily run out of it without knowing, since the game never informs you when you are running low.

But more annoying is, that the game never clear tell you what is going on during combat as there is often very little feedback, I mean it does flash numbers, but it never really inform you of crucial stuff, so you can and like will, often die and don’t know why. This is made way worst due icons showing debuffs/buffs begin rather small and sometimes, specially in raids, enemies will use powerful debuffs which you maybe not even notice not to talk about bosses which have one hit kill skills which unless you know beforehand you likely die.

Streamlining and the Lack of It

One thing I noticed, is that overtime they tried to simplify most quest making the game slight more dynamic, this was done either by rewriting quests or balancing them (like reducing the need number for something). This was excellent, because I remember stuff from the early Dilos Lantern arc begin too long and complicated, but now if feel way more fast.

Another addition was the Guide Quests, which are, much like the name suggest, a series of quest which introduce you to several of the game aspects and require things like complete a scenario quest arc or individual raid quest.

There is even some really cleaver stuff, such as NPC in Ustiur, which sell gems that allow you to summon an enemy monster, this is really helpful since allow you to complete a quest that require to kill a very rare monster. As example, Soso (an RNPC) in her recruitment quest, request you to kill a Jack of Lantern, normally that would be hard, however you can easily buy the game to summon the monster and complete the quest.

However, this is only for part of the game, there still a huge part where nothing feels straightforward, everything feel like there is a dozen if not a hundred of steps to take, with often sudden spike of difficult. Quests might have entire sequences of going back and forth between two npcs that go on for ages. To make things worst, often the rewards aren’t very good.

One example is one of Brunies’s sub quest: Treasure in the New World, which start fairly simple, as you first explore Tubkal, but from there you need to find three keys, each key require it its own two to three quests, and you do all of this for the quest to suddenly end, and you gain a minimal reward.

Not only this, RNPC quest can at times feel exercise in tedium, even if the game is sort trying its best to tell an interesting story, I noticed this doing a handful of steps of the Rose Spirit quest, and sort was going back and forth between npcs, watching scenes that felt stretched out even if the game was telling this story about this spirit which Montoro locked in his castle and now wish to see the world, there is a whole thing about people, specially in Viron (Montoro castle is nearby) don’t trusting her, but she still does her best to gain their trust…however all you do is going back and forth watching not well-made scenes…

Leftovers and Poor Ideas

There is a some stuff in GE which is essentially leftover of older mechanics, the most evident one is the Pioneer Memorial Statues which you find in almost every map, now they don’t do really anything. But back there they give you a quest to kill enemies in exchange for XP Cards. This system is gone, but the statues remain there. There is one place however, the Rebouldeux swears where I think you can still find statues which operate like in the old days.

Looking in guides there is a good chance you read about Growth Stones, they don’t exist any longer, as they were replaced by Sun, Moon and Star stones, which you can trade for Feso.

In Gigante Island there are some mini-games, winning in them gives you tokens which you could trade for things, you can still play them and from what people told me the awards till good, but the stuff appear almost forgotten there, also the mini-games aren’t very good and the game does a poor job to explain how to play them.

Remember the Infinito Challenge? I could swear that this thing was way different and way harder, so much that was the reason that for a while I ignored it, until I noticed that it changed. But I could be wrong and misremembering something.

For a long while now the Bounty Hunter Guild had a selection of different raids, each one with two levels of difficult, by defeating the boss you maybe get Bounty Hunter Tokens, which you could exchange for stuff… But by time I was writting this, the system got a revamp again, instead of selection of raids, you now have a sort of horde mode, where you need to defeat several hordes of enemies and bosses, the longer you manage to go on the better are the rewards. It is away better system, like, before you had sort to go one by one raid, if you which to optimize, now you can do the whole thing sort in one run.

Other times you feel there is some really not well planned ideas, from the Market limitation which I mentioned, to something I noticed now — When you reach High Master, you can (and the loading screen tell you over and over again) that maybe you should go Armonia and getting the Pope’s blessing (which gives +1 AR / DR and +5000 HP), which in one hand is nice, but also the game never really inform you how or when you can go to Armonia.

For a while I guessed, wrongly, that it was gated by a quest, but turn out it is not, because unlikely in other times, where you can only reach certain places when you either reach a certain family level or moment in a quest line, to reach Armonia for the first time, you need to embark in a Zeppelin. But where it is? In Kielce Laboratory and there you talk to a npc… something which toke me a while to figure out due lack of instructions…

Sometimes quests remove your party and instead allow you to control a RNPC, at first this appears as a good idea, but most times what happen is that you are throw in the quest with a RNPC you never played before and have no real idea of how the skills works.

As example, in a quest during the Altria Arc, you get control of Nene and all you need to do is go a trough a map filled with monsters, since she is fairly high level when you control her it does look easy, however you likely to die and won’t know why. That when you notice you can’t use potions or anything. So what are you supposed to do? What the game want is using her normal attack to regain health, something you likely never noticed is a thing at first and using her skills to finish the monster, drawing them in few groups.

Friede, another RNPC have a similar moment to this, but in this case is worst, since Friede skills are way more complex, and you have way less time to understand them in a hurry.

The game does have a system for dailies, but it is the strangest one I ever saw, in some towns a NPC will give you a daily quest, however first only a handful of players can actually do the quest… so we already off to a great start… but the quest themselves at least don’t appear too hard, the one in Auch simple require going to a map and kill a few monsters to collect a couple item, once you do enough of the quest you do gain a special reward, which I confess don’t remember what is, but you can imagine is nothing amazing and the game informs you anyway…

By least there is a Farming mini-game of some sort, I only did it on the other server, since it is kind boring and most consist of growing some crops, a bit of fishing… but in the server which I am right now I haven’t bothered playing it. Also, I don’t think the game itself ever explain the farming mini-game is a thing or the potential rewards, at least in a direct way.

Authors note: So, here we go, this is the main reason this toke so long to write… This might feel, like I said earlier, a bit scattershot, this mostly cover stuff about gear.

AR and DR

Also, outside from Level you have two more attributes, well to be fair you have tons of attributes, but for now let’s focus on two of them: AR and DR, which are your average level of weapons(AR) and armor(DR) plus other stuff (meaning that you have base AR/DR to each other stuff is added, like bonus from level up, buffs, ect). To figure if you can defeat something, in theory, you only need to check this values and compare with what you are trying to defeat… However… while the game does give that info, it is sort hidden behind some obscure menus (and mostly only cover the boss in raids) and while a quest might give you a general idea of the average level, it does not inform or check AR/DR, so you get quests which on paper you should be able (as it might be a grey or yellow quest), but you can’t, and you likely don’t know why, and the reason mostly like is the monsters having a very high level of AR/DR.

To make things worst, the actual difference between levels of AR/DR are really strange in the sense that one of two number of difference might mean a lot and other times not much.

For example, after you use Crescemento Weapons (which start at 0 and go up to 32 in AR as you level u), you sort expected to change to Constellation Weapons (33 AR) and from there either go to Evil Weapons (34 AR) or Experimental Weapons (35 AR) and from there goes to other stuff which I don’t have access right now.

Now the difference between 32 and 33 or 33 to 34 or 35 might not appear that much, but it is huge, like for a while one of the reason I was stuck earlier on, it was because I was still using Crescemento and few Constellation Weapons, until other members of the Faction I am pointed me to look for Experimental Weapons. I did that and like day to night suddenly I was leveling up and making progress.

Now, keep something in mind, AR/DR are only one aspect of a weapon and armor, there is a lot more, from as Penetration, bonus against certain enemies and other stuff too…

What about Gear?

You might not realize in first hand but the game have this really strange relationship with gear, at least right now. It is so strange that is kind hard for me to explain, but I will try:

Ok, let´s go back a bit, at the start (from at least when I start playing), GE didn’t play much different that any other MMO, monsters dropped weapons/armor, NPC sell them and so on.

But overtime, something really strange start to happen, slowly they sort start to replace stuff, Crescemento Weapons and Armor were introduced at some point, where they replace most weapons until AR/DR 32 (remember, their stats grow with the player, until they reach 32), even the NPCs which used to sell old weapons now only sell Crescemento Gear (rather cheaply, they only cost a 1 Shiny Crystal).

Not only this, Crescemento Weapons because they are easy to buy, enchanting and everything else is also easier since you can keep trying until you get what you want, meaning you sort have no reason to use normal weapons anymore, at least in the early game. The downsides? You can’t really sell or trade them.

But you still can find normal weapons early on, but most of the time, their stats will be lower than a Crescemento one and also they are fixed (meaning they don’t scale), this does not mean they are useless, as you can run in stuff that at least for a short while is useful… also they can serve as crafting materials in some cases.

If you played any MMOs, you might be familiar with the concept of a “set of gear”, where each piece you add improves the whole thing. GE isn’t different, and you might notice that with the whole Evil, Constellation, etc… some are meant to be sets.

Another thing the game never inform you is about the Infinito Challenge, which will be your first source for a semi-set of items, the Desapio gear, which are boots, earrings, belts and glove set. At each level of the Infinito Challenge, you face a boss (the whole thing is like boss rush), but way weaker, defeating one can give you one of this items and Tokens you need to enchant them and also other stuff.

If you remember the Crescemento stuff, you might wonder if you could be find normal (I mean non set) boots, gloves, etc… and the answer is yes. Except, soon as you get Desapio gear, you sort no longer need them as between their stats and the set bonus they will be better that everything else, but again they might be useful for materials.

Now, let’s talk about Currencies, because like many MMOs, Granado Espada does have it own lot, I could not list them all, but at the basic level you have things like: Currency for Raids (one type for each level of raid, meaning you have a currency for level 1 raids another for level 2 and so on), Bounty Hunter Tokens (however, you might not get tokens at all even when you do quest since they are a random reward). The Point is, that each currency can be exchanged for stuff with a npc and that is likely a source for weapons, armor and even character boxes (can give you a random RNPC card), the problem is they require a lot of points and that can take a while, specially since you can’t just farm raids and Bounty Hunter(there is an entrance limit).

But that is not the only thing: Just a few days I noticed that I was getting stuff called Serendebite and First Hymn, which are also stuff which you can exchange for another currency (the first for Silver Coins and the latter for Gold Coins), which you can also use to trade for stuff with another npc… By the way I don’t think the game even explain this I sort discovered this by accident…

Getting Stuck

If you find yourself, like me, stuck, what you do? Well, much depends on of when you got stuck and there is a lot of moments it can happen, for me this where the spots:

• During the Errac Arc you will need a High Quality Ruby, Emerald and Sapphire, but at this moment you might yourself unable to get them easily: First, since you can’t use the market, there is no way to buy it from other players. You can try to farm it, but it might take a while a long while, also you might need to check where exactly it drops (the game don’t really tell you, so you might need to hit the internet). Your best options, are either begin a Faction (or just being lucky on general chat) and someone gives you them, or you can do an Individual Raid, because there is a common reward, but you might be unaware of which raids can you do and how hard or easy they are. I notice new players getting stuck in this part a lot.
• By the way, not being able to trade with other players (and even drop stuff in the ground), until you do the End of Montoro arc can get you stuck in a lot of moments, specially a quest which require you to collect rare stuff, like the infamous Katovic Soup. Thankfully, the required amounts that were largely reduced.
• Later during the Catherine Torsche recruitment quest, there is a moment you need to be way better level and gear and also have the RNPC Catherine Doll (it is a long story…) at a higher level, because you need her during the early part of the quest (and she has to survive) and you also need to face Catherine Torsche, which depending on of your level and gear might be beyond you. But once you pass this part you can move a lot more in the game main quest.
• While helpful, the Guide Quest can maybe point players toward Level 4 Individual Raids way earlier, where likely they won’t have gear or level do it and get stuck. This isn’t helped by raid difficult not very clear, like some earlier raids can be way dangerous that other, even late level ones, due bosses having one hit kill skills or powerful debuffs.
• Getting better gear after one point (around AR/DR 35), can get confusing or direction less: The market won’t help you, since stuff there is either below that or above that and I mean, stuff like Valeron weapons/armor (AR/DR 37+) and this can get really expansive. What maybe you can do, is finding recipes for Strata Evil gear or Chroma Greek, crafting them and mostly important, upgrade them a lot. However, this requires, besides finding the recipes (which the improved Bounty Hunter helps) is getting the material and then due the whole upgrade which might several tries, unless you have stuff to avoid the rng which might break a weapon during the upgrade or even have several of said weapons. Another thing you can maybe do is some event (and there is one about to start) where you asked to forget a weapon and if lucky you can keep it, with the advantage that during the event is way easier.
• Now maybe you think: Hey, this is the point where the game expect you to hit the cash shop…. While I almost agree, the shop and the UI is confusing enough to even if you want to buy something you might don’t know what. Also, mostly stuff is either boxes which give you stuff and material and things for crafting, so far as I can see there is you can’t directly buy better weapons/armor in a direct fashion from the cash shop, and to fair, this whole time (in both servers) I never bought anything there and never felt that I need.
• The best “way” to level up, both character levels and their skill levels is by AFK a lot, you can, if willing, spend Feso to buy a pass for one of the two “premium dungeons”. Luckily, during the Anniversary Event, one reward I manage to got was two passes for one of this premium dungeons, and I have to say, they do help — I was at Master lv7 with my character at the time and in a short moment I managed to get levels for reaching Highmaster (But at this point the dungeon xp, while still good the rate is the not same). I still had one left to which I added another I get during the Christmas event.
• Sometimes the game can feel that requires lots of leaps of logic, which unless you are familiar with the game mechanics can really confusing. Remember the daily missions? Each town offer one, and I think, that maybe one or two, at the end of the whole thing (and I mean, doing the task along a week) give you a Stance Ring Box, which give you a random ring that improve a stance or another. Now some rings can be worth a lot and this is a way to make some cash, if you are aware of this whole sequence…. for a while I forget I had some of these boxes around and luckily one give me a ring which was improved a stance for a newer character, that give me some good vis in the market.
• Right now, I am one point of the Leader of the New World arc, which is beyond me in level or gear as most other quest are the same. Now I have three main character: Fighter (Highmaster Lv1), Emilia (Highmaster Lv1) and Bernelli (Highmaster Lv1). The next step of the quest is slight beyond me and there isn’t much else I can do, even the next Guide Quest, which require me to clear an Individual Raid of Rank 4 is way too much.

Progress

But to not close in dire tone, let me tell about what I was able to do in the meantime.

Kielce

So far, Kielce is the largest town in the game, I mean, of the one which I am able to visit. It very detailed and the place for the whole Bristia Independence arc.

But this place have lot of npc which give you “reputation based quests”, meaning you do quests for them, which fill a bar with reputation with this or that faction, some are trivial, like talk to several other npcs, repeat a single quest… but also very tedious. Beside the main town map, there is a couple of places you can visit, from a Laboratory, where you find how to get to Armonia, the “night mode” of Kielce, where you visit the street at night and can have lots of fights. Plus some minor spaces, such as a Pub and the Governor’s Palace.

Like most towns in the game, there is a couple of RNPCs you can find. Outside of Kielce, there is a few maps, nothing specially worth talking about, except one where you can see the effect of the Vespanolan “Magic Cannon”, which was used in the war where Bristia lost.

Armonia and the kid Pope.

Once I figure how to get to Armonia I did a quick travel there, to get the kid Pope blessing. The place is sort meant to the game universe stand in for the Vatican, but the plot here is about fighting undead or something, there is a whole mechanic about blessing and being cursed, where if you die here you can get a debuff which you can remove either by using holy water and some other means. It is way too overcomplicated, to the point the npc which explain you stuff have to do a quiz to check if you pay attention. Anyway the place is high level, so I just stay enough to look at some npcs, visit the Pope and get out.

What Next?

To be fair I don’t know when the next part is coming, mostly because I wish to progress in the main plot more to them talk about it, because things get… wild…like the plot goes to places and I don’t have a full or even partial picture of the whole thing.

Links to all posts:

Granado Espada - Overview (Part I)

Granado Espada - Visuals and Early Game (Part II)

Granado Espada - Issues and Bits of Progress (Part III)

Previously on Granado Espada (Part IV)

Granado Espada - Adrift (Part V)